Cash Advance/Balance Transfers

[woohoogirl]

Before I saw the writing on the wall and was in a state of denial, I transferred balances and did several cash advances. I know now that was very stupid on my part, but I can't go back and undo it. I'm planning on filing Ch 7 (income is too low), most of my debts are medical and credit cards, however I do have a home and a car. I have no equity in my house and maybe about a thousand dollars equity in my car. I live in TN and the personal property exemption is $4,000, so that covers my equity in my car and I assume my income tax refund. With this being said, I have 2 questions.
1)Would this appear to be a No Asset case? (assuming the remainder of my personal property and bank accounts don't put me over that limit)?
2)If the credit card companies object about the cash advances and balance transfer, what is their recourse, if any?

Thanks for any help. I'm so glad I found this forum, it allows me to sleep at night!
Woo

[HHM]

1. assuming your facts are true, yes that sounds like a no asset case (although, depending on your state, your tax refund could be an asset(

2. If they object...and are successful, the debt is declared non-dischargeable, which means you will ultimately have to pay it back at some point. Once the debt is considered non-dischargeable, the creditors can puruse normal collections efforts, including wage garnishment, etc (assuming your state allows wage garnishment).

As for determining whether an objectiong is likely...

1. When did you do the balance transfers/cash advances?
2. How much were they for?

[woohoogirl]

I have a couple.
1. CrapOne - 4/17/2007 - $5,000 transferred balance of another card
2. CitiBank - 6/5/2007 - $9,650.00 transferred balance of another card
6/13/07 - $1,500 Balance transfer check to me
7/27/07 - $349 pay car insurance

3. BankCard Visa - 9/11/07 - $1000 to pay CrapOne and Citibank and buy groceries
9/25/07 - $1000 to pay for mail order prescriptions totaling $714

Am I screwed or what?

[newimges]

Any cash advances totally more than $825 within the 70 days before you file are considered non-dischargeable.

Any charges of $550 or more to any one creditor for "luxury goods or services" within the 90 days before you file are also non-dischargeable.

You really should wait at least 90 days from your last transfer to file and don't use any of your cards anymore.

These creditors might not object if you file early than that but they clearly have a right to.

Hope this helps.

[HHM]

Yeah, you need to wait to file...given the amount of some of the balance transfers, you really wouldn't want to consider filing until January, 2008

[woohoogirl]

Okay if I wait until January to file, what can I expect to happen in these two months? Can I go ahead and pay my attorney a retainer (he won't file unless he's paid if full) and tell those 20 calls a day creditors that I'm in the process of filing and give them my attorney's name and number. Or will that speed them up to file judgments? I really need and want to get this thing going, the sooner the better.

[a.fla]

Do most creditors dispute the amounts if they are under the 70 or 90 days depending on if it were charges or cash advances? And if they do, do they only dispute the amounts you most recently used within that time frame, or will they just go ahead and dispute the entire amount of the credit card?

[HHM]

Creditors can only dispute charges that fall within that objectionable criteria. So if some of the charges would not be objectionable, the creditor cannot throw those into the mix.

To Woohoogirl: go ahead and retain your attorney. Doing so does not motivate the creditors to seek a judgment faster (usually what happens is they try to sell the debt to another junk debt buyer before you file). Judgments get discharged in BK along with everything else.
Once you hire an attorney to deal with your debt situation, under FDCPA rules, once the collection agency is informed of that fact, they can no longer contact you.

[needafreshstart]

Have you had any late payments yet? I quit paying all my debt when I realized I'd be filing. Most creditors never called until it was late over 60 days. Even after that most calls I got about 1 a week from creditors. I had perfect payment history until I altogether stopped though, it probably wouldn't have been the same had I had irregular payment history.

[woohoogirl]

To HHM, would it be forward of me to tell you that I love you? You've made me feel much better. I'm so afraid of doing something that's gonna cause this BK to be messed up.
Thanks so much for your help.
Woo

[jp2861]

I'd be waiting alot longer than January to file. You made cash advances in September to pay other credit cards. If your cash advances were for living necessities it probably wouldn't be an issue. I'd push it out to April or so.

[ameliabedilia]

I thought I read somewhere that if you do a cash advance/balance transfer to pay off another card, then the trustee can just take the money from the second card and give it to the original card. Am I totally incorrect?
These balance transfers offers and convenience checks are EVIL. Seems that they have gotten people into so much trouble.

[woohoogirl]

I'd be waiting alot longer than January to file. You made cash advances in September to pay other credit cards. If your cash advances were for living necessities it probably wouldn't be an issue. I'd push it out to April or so.

Now how can they prove that those advances were for credit card bills? I did the advance into my checking account and then dispersed the money as needed. So theorically, I could have paid my mortgage and car and grocery bills with that cash advance, and used my paycheck to pay the cards. Am I thinking to much like sane person?

[jp2861]

Now how can they prove that those advances were for credit card bills? I did the advance into my checking account and then dispersed the money as needed. So theorically, I could have paid my mortgage and car and grocery bills with that cash advance, and used my paycheck to pay the cards. Am I thinking to much like sane person?

It doesn't matter where it went or where it came from. The creditor will use the story that you took the cash knowing that you could'nt pay it back. If they object there will be a time for discovery where you'll be asked what you did with the money and they'll look at your financial situation at the time of the transactions. If it's clear that you weren't in a financial situation to pay the debt as it matured, you'll lose.

Another flag goes up if you file right at the minimum waiting time. It could look like you made the transactions knowing you'd be filing soon. It's always best to wait it out as long as you possibly can.

Your best plan would be to make a few good faith payments, of whatever. Then put as much time between the transactions and the date you file.

[woohoogirl]

Okay. I realize that I'm overthinking and overfretting about this, but I really do want to come out on the other side of this in OK shape. Of course I believe that's what we all want otherwise we wouldn't be here educating ourselves to have the best possible outcome. One last stupid question (I don't promise that it will stop me from asking another). When I go to my attorney and give him this information, he should act in my best interest right? If I tell him these things, he can't say "we might as well file, because you are going to owe these funds back to these creditors regardless." Or could he say that I need to wait until whenever so that these transactions might go away?